Disqus - Latest Comments for James V

Re: More musings on the effectiveness and necessity of ads

James V — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:13:32 -0000

Troy Young of UX Magazine (see www.uxmag.com) has a great definition of Media 2.0. People will suffer adverts if the content or service they are receiving is free. Paid content (like Sky Movies) should have no overt adverts, unless they can be discreetly embedded with product placement.

If enterprises can place adverts in cached memory inside a street level WiFi/WiMax transceiver, seamlessly deployed across populated areas, users can harvest local products and services on-demand from the nearest transmitter. A business can capture a customer requesting their products or services whilst harvesting that information from the nearest local transmitter right at the moment of interest. That ability to know someone nearby wants your business will pay for the transmitters to be deployed. These local cached memory transmitters can also power Out-Of-Home (OOH) TV advertising screens where “infotainment” videos of surfers, skiers and skydivers designed to catch the audience attention are interspersed with 15 second adverts for local or national enterprises. These OOH adverts can have wireless access point interactivity to allow users to get more information directly from the enterprise running the advert and capture the location specific customer at the moment of decision.

User profiles could also be pulled from their handheld devices in a specific location, at that moment in time and aggregated into a crowd demographic profile to allow OOH advertisers to broadcast adverts appropriate to the assembled audience (without compromising individual privacy laws). This unique knowledge of the aggregated crowd profile facilitates the revolution of publishing appropriate advertising only when a receptive audience has assembled.

On-line video games could also be provided for free on permission to receive “in game” interactive adverts appropriate to the user profile of the player. Eventually IPTV may also be broadcast by only transmitting the detail on the screen that has changed from the previous animation (like on-line electronic games), which may enable digital placement of in-program interactive adverts appropriate to the profile of the viewer.

The media world is being turned on its head as it pays advertisers to help deliver Web 2.0 services for free in return for targeted access to receptive consumers and this is Media 2.0.

People will come to accept the “fair exchange” of focussed and targeted advertising paying for digital city deployment and free delivery of some Web 2.0 services. If people don’t want adverts, they will be paying for the service.

Re: You need features to manage groups - an example

James V — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 07:52:01 -0000

Nic

It is interesting what you say about the increasing power of social networking groups.

Last week, HSBC reversed its decision to take away students’ interest-free overdrafts as soon as they leave university after it suffered a consumer revolt by graduates on the pages of Facebook. Today, Eric Knight, a New York-based shareholder activist requested HSBC to undertake a fundamental review of the group’s strategy and is setting up a social networking site to garner support.

Companies have been able to dismiss or ignore blog rants (like LinkedIn groups) as the audience has generally been quite narrow.

Facebook's more public social networking groups, as a collective voice forces companies to listen to their customers and is likely to exponentially increase activism as consumers grasp their power in numbers.

PR companies urgently need to become the ever vigilant eyes and ears to manage and protect enterprises and organisations from widely broadcast blogs, rumours and smears in a fully connected world.

Today HSBC, tomorrow the world.

Best regards

James Vinall
LastMile

Re: Facebook’s new advertising platform

James V — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:04:42 -0000

This is just another form of "push" ad intrusion that marketers will not be able to help themselves abusing, especially when Quad Play becomes a reality.

Ad agencies acknowledge that "consumers are tired of being shouted at".

I personally would not want my Facebook friends knowing what I have looked at or purchased, unless it is something I am raving about, which I would tell them anyway.